Mixing Custom Paint Colors?

[PAToyota]

So I've done some automotive painting here and there, but it's typically been to match what is/was there or just use an "off the shelf" color from the local auto parts place, Summit, Eastwood, or such.

For house paint, you can pretty much go to any paint store with any object they can fit into their scanner and get paint mixed to match it - the wife's favorite blouse, the kid's stuffed toy, your girlfriend's areola whatever... The "name brand" places were able to do it first, but now Lowes and Home Depot will even do it. They do tend to draw the line at other business's colors, though. You can't walk into Lowes with a paint chip from Home Depot and have them scan that and mix it up in their product line, which I understand.

The local automotive paint distributor has a similar scanner, but they tell me they can only match to an existing paint formula. They scan your several-years-old Ford and come back and say the original Ford color is now this far off because it has faded, but they could give you this Chevy color that's a lot closer, this Freightliner color that's a bit further off, or this Mopar color that's still a bit further off - all still closer than the original Ford color to what is on the car now. Apparently they can't do like the house paints and do a full custom mix of this many squirts red, a squirt of ultramarine blue, and four drops of black to get it to match your girlfriend's lipstick.

Am I just talking to the wrong paint shop or is this really how it works for automotive paint?

 

[Clb]

The idiot cannot blend paint cuz he cannot read the formula for the original color..
Nothing new here carry on

 

[Clb]

How duz the idiot on TV do it?

edit
fwiw
Seems the old guys could tint/color to batch, whereas the computer jockeys only push a button?!

 

[dirtybird]

I spray sikkens and utech at my shop. The akzo camera has a solid generate feature that will come up with it's own formula for solid colors. It wont for metallics though.

 

[PAToyota]

I spray sikkens and utech at my shop. The akzo camera has a solid generate feature that will come up with it's own formula for solid colors. It wont for metallics though.

So I'm talking to the wrong people? Try another distributor? The one I was talking to used PPG and always seemed to steer me right until I started asking about this.

I am looking at solid colors and realize that metallics opens up a whole different ballgame as far as matching things.

 

[Stuck]

I think youre talking to the wrong paint guy. My buddys been painting forever and 8ve seen him match some pretty wild stuff. Hes got some funky camera that gets him close and then he goes from there changing the mix little by little till its perfect.

 

[Carbon]

That's how it works. The camera doesn't make the formula, it finds the closest match and will give you a number noting how close it is.

You can narrow down the parameters, let's say, "just Ford". Then it will just find matches with that manufacturer. You can even narrow it down to only paint code.

I put no restrictions on and it usually nails the manufacturer and paint code.

 

[Stuck]

That's how it works. The camera doesn't make the formula, it finds the closest match and will give you a number noting how close it is.

You can narrow down the parameters, let's say, "just Ford". Then it will just find matches with that manufacturer. You can even narrow it down to only paint code.

I put no restrictions on and it usually nails the manufacturer and paint code.

Im not sure. He even matches custom mixes colors with it. I think it works like the one at homedepot. It gives him a formula that gets him close and then he adjusts his mix making spray cards till its right. He has this whole wall of paints in some funky rack that he uses.

 

[PAToyota]

That's how it works. The camera doesn't make the formula, it finds the closest match and will give you a number noting how close it is.

That seems to be how this distributor's system worked - that it only found the closest existing matches, not a completely custom mix like the household paints will do.

To further clarify, the household paint places will take a sample, scan it, and come up with a mix that matches exactly - within reason considering that you may have brought in a coffee cup, piece of fabric, or a brick. It doesn't have to be one of the colors that they have on their paint chips.

For the automotive paint place they take the sample, scan it, and then walk over to the paint chips and say "Well, this comes closest to our 2018 Ford A2 color."

 

[Carbon]

It's the same. The "camera", or spectrophotometer, does not come up with the formula. It reads the light spectrum and compares it to a database of colors with known formulas and chooses the closest one.

 

[PAToyota]

I guess the household paint places just have a more extensive database of known formulas?

 

[ConwayMuddy]

It's the same. The "camera", or spectrophotometer, does not come up with the formula. It reads the light spectrum and compares it to a database of colors with known formulas and chooses the closest one.

I dont know what carquest uses, but they managed to match dodge and Mitsubishi colors pretty perfectly on a repaint truck with some years on it. Like couldn't tell I touched any of it up, much less with a rattle can

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I imagine that the household paint match places are willing to try because if they fuck up, all they've wasted is a $10-$30 can of paint, not a multiple hundred dollar can of automotive urethane paint.

I've had napa mix up paint for me off of a mfg code, but never to match a sample panel to include fade. Maybe go ask a collision shop what they'd do? They have to match paint to whatever is on the car if all they need to paint is a fender or whatever.